In the Center for Civilization Studies’ Kitabiyat series, we will host Prof. Dr. Ahmet Özel for a talk on his book “Kutlu Hayatın İzinde: Yeni Siyer”.

The following description is taken from the back-cover blurb of Ahmet Özel’s book Kutlu Hayatın İzinde: Yeni Siyer.

“'Indeed, in the Messenger of God you have a beautiful exemplar for all who hope to meet God and the Last Day and remember God much' (Ahzab 33:21). In Islam, the importance of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) lies not only in his conveying the divine message to humankind, but also in the fact that through his own life he concretely demonstrated how the ideal human model presented in this message – the insan-i kâmil, the perfected human being – is to be realized.

In this work, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Özel approaches the life of the Prophet with a holistic perspective, examining him both as a human being and as a prophet. In recounting the Prophet’s life, he avoids a merely narrative, story-telling style that confines itself to reporting events. At the same time, he adopts a balanced tone, choosing a position distinct from other works that remain on the line of excess and deficiency. Throughout the book, he deals in detail with how the Messenger of God educated his Companions (aṣḥāb) and how, in as short a time as a quarter of a century, he established a structure that would come to hold sway over the world. Moreover, when treating the battles and expeditions, he does not limit himself to describing where and how they took place; rather, he focuses, from a broad perspective, on their causes and consequences.

In the work, various concepts and issues such as prayer, ablution, the call to prayer, the qibla, the Isra and Mi‘raj, the marriages of the Messenger of God, war and jihad, spoils of war, slavery and concubinage are addressed, and answers are sought to many current questions. Without falling under the influence of Western paradigms and without merely reproducing the tradition, the author responds to various claims in a moderate language and thus secures a distinctive place within the sīra literature. Based on a detailed examination of more than one hundred volumes from twenty-eight classical sources and drawing as well on contemporary works in Turkish, English, French, and Arabic, this study presents an original sīra grounded in both classical and modern sources, filling a long-felt gap in Türkiye."